Flooding leaves loss, damage and cleanup

His broken toe throbbing, back and muscles aching, Gerald Cottone deposited the last bit of soaked debris on the heap at his curb in Elmhurst on Friday afternoon. A light hail began to fall.

"After this," said Cottone, an Elmhurst resident for 35 years, "yeah, I'll be glad to be out of here."

He and his wife, Carol, are moving to Alabama in three weeks to be closer to children and grandchildren. But like many residents across the Chicago region who are staying put, Cottone still has to clean up after more than 5.5 inches of rain pummeled the area, displacing thousands and prompting Gov. Pat Quinn to declare 38 counties state disaster areas.

The Cottones, who live in south Elmhurst, got about 3 inches of water in their basement, slight compared with some whose entire basements were converted to rancid underground pools several feet deep. But the water in the Cottones' basement was enough to ruin the carpet — and boxes of photo albums, toys and clothes.

"Three weeks to go before I leave and I get punished," Gerald Cottone said.

Around the corner on Bryan Avenue, David and Patti Ore were talking about getting a carpet cleaner after they endured a similar experience when sewers backed up about 4 a.m. Thursday.

"We heard the gurgling," David Ore said. "Water started coming up through the toilet, and it was yucky water."

Veterans of previous floods, the Ores had two sump pumps, but David Ore hustled to the store for a third, and that combination stabilized the water pressure inside and outside their home until the rain stopped Thursday morning, he said. They worked for 17 hours that day and nine more hours Friday to clear and clean their home.

"It's one way to purge your old junk," Patti Ore said, laughing.

Both Ores said they considered themselves lucky compared with neighbors whose homes got several feet of water. They joked that considering Elmhurst's reputation for flooding and electricity outages, community leaders should offer discounts on generators and wet vacuums to new residents as a welcome wagon gift package.

In Naperville, contractor trucks were parked in driveways and in front of homes, next to piles of wet furniture, mattresses and other debris at the curb. Like many residents throughout the western suburbs, Nancy Plotkin, who rents a home on Eagle Street, said the storm brought the worst flooding she could recall.

"Even if we had five sump pumps, we couldn't have kept pace," she said.

The Brown family assessed damage after the basement of their Will County home near Joliet took on about 3 to 4 inches of water.

Kim Brown said she used an anti-fungal spray on the furniture and was waiting for curtains and other furnishings to dry out. Extra fans were helping dry out the carpeting, which will need to be cleaned as well.

"Now we have to go through all the things we had on the lower shelves," Brown said.

"It's going to be at least a week before we can start to move things back," she said.

The family's losses were minimal, though — a few books, a board game and some puzzles could not be salvaged.

In Lisle, Dave and Lisa Ellstrom watched the East Branch of the DuPage River inch up to their backdoor, then stop. They exhaled only to discover a few minutes later that the floodwater had swerved around the house and started flowing into their basement from the front.

They ended up with about a foot of water in their basement but were grateful that their furnace was not damaged. The Ellstroms filled their first floor with basement contents they could salvage and deposited on the parkway a mound of waterlogged material that couldn't be saved.

"Well," said Lisa Ellstrom, "we're getting rid of a lot of the kids' things."

Added Dave: "It's the spring cleaning we never asked for."

The flood made fishing easier, too. As the river overflow receded Thursday night, a pool of water remained on the street, stranding a dozen panfish.

"I went out there and saw this blue heron having a midnight snack," Dave said.

About a half-mile away, Gary Johnstone waited in the darkened apartment lobby of The Towers at Four Lakes near Lisle, shepherding residents to their apartments to retrieve clothes, medicine and pets. A day earlier, those residents had been evacuated by boat.

"The biggest concern were the pets," said Johnstone, property manager at Four Lakes. "A lot of people had to leave them behind. The village said that was about the only calls they were getting."

Johnstone said that none of the units was damaged, but basement flooding forced management to evacuate all 470 residents. He estimated that it could be three to four weeks before cleanup and repairs are completed and residents are allowed to return.

As he spoke, Taylor King, 25, walked through the lobby on his way to the front door to leave.